Robbie Swinnerton serves up morsels from the foodiest city on the planet

fresh pasta

06/10/2012

I've posted about Oltrevino before and about the premium Italian goodies we've picked up there from time to time when we've found ourselves in the Yuigahama/Hase end of Kamakura. But until last weekend, we'd never actually sat down and eaten anything there.

The eat-in choices are exactly the same as the take-out menu, and you select from the showcase on the counter at the front, before taking your place at one of the wooden farmhouse tables toward the back of the room.

We started with a caprese made with a delectable burrata, much creamier than ordinary mozzarella, topped with diced fruit tomatoes (grown further down the Miura Peninsula, not actually in Kamakura, they told us), mixed with fine-chopped mint.

And a carpaccio of tobi-uo (flying fish, now at the peak of its season) with hassaku citrus, a great combination. Served on mustard and other greens with a garnish of dill and a sprinkling of cumin seeds...

But what we were really there for was the pasta. Every day there are five or six to choose from, all made fresh in-house. And there are twice that many pasta sauces. The permutations are, if not infinite, considerable.

Choosing the ravioli was a no-brainer. There were two kinds, some stuffed with spinach, the others with ricotta cheese. A simple butter-parmesan sauce went perfectly with it, with more fresh-grated parmesan sprinkled over the top.

And to pick our other pasta, we worked backwards, first choosing the sauce we wanted. Which would go best with the ragu of salsiccia and cavolo nero? It had to be pappardelle.

The cavolo nero was first lightly boiled before being sauteed and added to the ragu, with shavings of parmesan over the top. Absolutely right with a glass of chianti classico.

As I mentioned in my Japan Times column last week, you can sometimes find Oltrevino's fresh pasta — usually just linguine or other types that package well — in the big branches of Dean & Deluca (such as the one outside Shinagawa Station), and sometimes the pasta sauces as well.

But you would do much better to go to the source. Jump on a train and combine a trip to Kamakura with a leisurely lunch at the Oltrevino shop. Highly recommended!

06/03/2012

It's all about the setting. Screened from the sun by a wide parasol and surrounded by shrubbery, you settle in sipping Prosecco and nibbling on focaccia. Ensconced in this oasis of calm, you might almost forget you're just steps away from the Nishi-Azabu Crossing, with its looming expressway flyover and ceaseless roar of traffic.

Inside is nice, with its whitewashed walls, scrubbed wood floors and well-patinated wooden chairs drawn up to crisp white tablecloths. But that outside table is really where it's at. A nice touch: your name inscribed on an ivy leaf to mark your reservation...

As nibbles: focaccia and other breads with some good olive oil to dip them in...

Starter #2: That excellent salad with slices of seared tairagi/tairagai. The salad itself is an eclectic mix of wild greens and herbs, including mange-tout peas, seri, ice plant, a couple of strands of wild asparagus and a single fiddlehead fern. Together with this you get several slices of the shellfish, like a coarser, meatier, country-cousin version of hotate scallops, anointed with a lively dressing of horseradish, mustard and shallots. For an antipasto, it's a substantial serving — and very attractively "plated" on the massive black triangular shell of the very same clam.

The pasta course: first up the trofie: small circles of dough rolled up into fat strings a couple of centimeters long — which he serves all'arrabbiata in a rich sauce prepared from fruit tomatoes. Remarkably sweet, and only very lightly piquant, it contains generous amounts of the delicate meat from kegani horsehair crabs.

Second, the gnocchi all fave: The broad beans, crushed and mixed with the dough, give the gnocchi an extra smoothness of texture as well as a distinctive dark-green hue. Served with creamy white ricotta cheese and crisp curls of salty pink guanciale (pork jowl bacon), it's not just a great mix of flavors — it's the quintessential Italian color combination.

And as a main course, a very tasty fillet of pan-fried amadai with very lightly cooked hamaguri clams. Like everything Chef Hidaka prepares, very attractively presented...

Dessert 1: biancomangiare with grappa-infused gelato...

Dessert 2: fresh mango served on a mango sorbet, imbued with plenty of vanilla...

Bottom line: a great setting, delicately prepared Tokyo-Italian cucina, and a warm sense of it being a family-run operation.